Gabrielle Union Reveals She's Had 'Eight or Nine Miscarriages'

Usually when people talk about undergoing IVF, they talk primarily about the exhaustion that comes with keeping an extremely close eye on their ovulation schedules, administering their own shots, and often, not getting the results they want. But in her new book, Gabrielle Union is opening up about another devastating effect of failed IVF treatments.

In an excerpt of We're Going to Need More Wine, published by People ahead of the book's October 17 release date, the actress and designer explains her IVF journey. "I have had eight or nine miscarriages," she writes. "For three years, my body has been a prisoner of trying to get pregnant—I've either been about to go into an IVF cycle, in the middle of an IVF cycle, or coming out of an IVF cycle." Despite her continued infertility struggles, though, Union notes that she and husband Dwyane Wade "remain bursting with love and ready to do anything to meet the child we've both dreamed of."

Although Union and Wade, who have been married since August 2014, didn't initially dream of expanding their family beyond the two of them, that all changed when Union began helping Wade raise his 16-year-old nephew, Dahveon, and sons Zaire, 15, and Zion, 10. "I never wanted kids," she said. "Then I became a stepmom, and there was no place I'd rather be than with them."

The 44-year-old also talks in her book about how taxing it is to be constantly asked about her and Wade's plans for the future while she's undergoing such intense treatments. "For so many women, and not just women in the spotlight, people feel very entitled to know, 'Do you want kids?'" she writes. "A lot of people, especially people that have fertility issues, just say 'no' because that's a lot easier than being honest about whatever is actually going on. People mean so well, but they have no idea the harm or frustration it can cause."

She added, "Once a month I look like I'm in my second trimester because I'm bloated. It leads to the questions and it leads to the rumors, and anytime I go into a doctor's office I feel like I'm a member of SEAL Team Six undercover because I don't want people to speculate."

Several other stars have spoken out about their own struggles with infertility in recent years. During a 2015 episode of their now-defunct talk show FABLife, both Chrissy Teigen and Tyra Banks opened up about the trouble they each had while trying to conceive. "I will say, honestly, John and I are having trouble," said Teigen, who welcomed daughter Luna with husband John Legend in April 2016. "We would have kids five, six years ago if it'd happened. But my gosh, it's been a process." Banks, who welcomed son York via surrogate in January 2016, added, "It's so funny—when I was 23 years old, I used to tell myself, 'In three years, I'm going to have kids.' Then I turned 24. 'In three years, I'm going to have kids.' Every single year I kept saying that. And then after a while, it's like, 'OK, now I want to.' And it's not so easy."